BUSINESS AUDITS IN UKRAINE DURING WARTIME AND QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS

Abstract

Abstract. The article reveals the specifics of conducting business tax audits by controlling bodies. Tax audit is a form of control carried out by authorized control bodies and institutions of state power to ensure compliance by natural and/or legal entities – taxpayers – with tax legislation. The Tax Code of Ukraine (TCU) distinguishes between three types of inspections: cameral audits, factual audits, documentary audits. It is emphasized that starting from March 18, 2020, there is a ban on conducting tax audits in Ukraine – both during quarantine and during martial law – but with a number of exceptions. With the beginning of the war, a number of changes were made to the Tax Code of Ukraine and some legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the administration of certain taxes during the period of martial law. There are a lot of innovations, in particular, regarding the conduct of tax audits, which require thorough study and analysis. The changes that were made during the first five months of martial law to the Tax Code of Ukraine by separate legislative acts were analyzed. The first «wartime» law extended the quarantine moratorium on tax audits under martial law conditions, and the next four laws made corresponding changes to the TCU, introducing some exceptions to the moratorium on certain types of tax audits. Thus, during the period of martial law on the territory of Ukraine, tax audits are not getting started, and the audits that have started are being stopped. The exceptions are cameral and factual audits, as well as documentary unscheduled audits, which are carried out at the request of the taxpayer and/or for reasons, and/ or documentary unscheduled audits of taxpayers, for which tax information was obtained, which indicates that the taxpayer has violated currency legislation in terms of compliance with deadlines for receipt of goods for import operations and/or foreign exchange earnings for export operations. Keywords: tax control, tax audits, cameral audits, factual audits, documentary audits, martial law, quarantine restrictions.